Geordie Riddell
Geordie Riddell — Character What Fiddler / Human Books and Stories this Character Appears In * Dreams Underfoot — ** "Timeskip" ** "Paperjack" * The Onion Girl (mentioned) * Moonlight and Vines * Promises to Keep * Trader * Widdershins * Tapping the Dream Tree Defining Description or Bio Geordie is strong-willed and determined, running away from home at age fifteen and still building a successful life for himself despite living on the streets for a few years. He doesn’t ask for charity or help and instead takes on odd jobs in addition to his music playing so that he can afford an apartment and make it so that playing music can be his only career by his mid-twenties or so. He’s also smart and clever, teaching himself how to play the fiddle, learning by ear, and memorizing the pieces of music that he learns. About Part of the Newford night scene, gigging or skulking where he can. Brothers * Christy Riddell * Paddy Riddell Personality and Character Can be very contradictory with himself and others. Geordie doesn’t necessarily like mopey people, but when he gets himself worked up, he can easily become just as mopey—as seen after losing Sam. He also doesn’t handle illnesses well. Emotional: Capable of putting trauma behind him to be the cheerful, friendly fiddler. Upon meeting him, it would be very difficult to guess that he comes from a troubled childhood. His ability to focus on the present lets him separate himself from that past. He’s also very level-headed and caring, which makes for a good balance for Jilly’s recklessness. Good at keeping his tempter in check. Low self-esteem. Nothing was ever right or good enough for his parents and the misconception that he couldn’t do things right carried on into adult hood. He’s aware that he is a talented musician but when it comes to girls, he has a hard time understanding why any would be romantically attracted to him. He also possesses a horrible temper and while generally good at keeping it hidden, slow to growing grudges or disliking someone, he is equally slow to forgive. The temper is said to be something inherited from his father. Also, his love for Jilly can be something of a weakness. When his temper comes out, it’s usually because she’s threatened. He’ll do just about anything for her, even if it means putting himself at risk. ~ Geordie - History + Personality (Luceti) Physical Decription He’s not particularly athletic though he does keep himself healthy. He spends more time playing the fiddle than at the gym. He’s described as having strong features instead of handsome but still attractive. ~ Geordie - History + Personality (Luceti) Talent Musician: Fiddler Music Talented musician. Geordie practically lives and breathes music, hearing a rhythm and melody in just about anything. As Christy describes it: “He plays his fiddle on street corners or along the queues in the theatre district and makes a kind of magic with his music that words just can’t describe. Listening to him play is like stepping into an old Irish or Scottish fairy tale. The slow airs call up haunted moors and lonely coastlines; the jigs and reels wake a fire in the soul that burns with the awesome wonder of bright stars on a cold night, or the familiar warmth of red coals glimmering in a friendly hearth. ~ Geordie - History + Personality (Luceti) Residence Geordie lives in that part of Foxville called the Rosses. Other Details * has a new Copeland whistle * moved to LA, lives with Tanya; * honorary member and mascot of the "Small Fierce Women Tribe" * worked at Gypsy Records one Christmas * found a 1912 picture of Samantha Rey in Moore’s Antiques—Sam with a group of strangers standing on the front porch of some old house Connections (characters, places) Jilly & Geordie By the time he meets Jilly Coppercorn, at age nineteen, he has a small apartment on Lee Street and is working odd jobs in addition to busking. He and Jilly meet while working the Christmas rush season at the post office November of 1972. They bond almost instantly, becoming inseparable friends. He’s made an honorary member of Jilly’s tribe of small fierce women (her friends from Butler University )—their boy mascot. In June of 1973, he agrees to accompany Jilly on a road trip to her old home in Tyson, where war stories of their childhood are shared and cement their lifelong friendship. Already infatuated with his friend by this point, Geordie's one shy attempt at flirtation is unknowingly shot down by Jilly—leaving him carrying a torch for her in the years to come. In the next few years, he continues spending his time with Jilly, busking on the street (street performance), and now playing gigs with fellow Newford musicians. The money made from gigs and busking is presumably enough for him to stop working the odd jobs he had as a teenager. He meets Samantha Rey, his first real acknowledged and reciprocated love, in a record shop two and a half years prior to his arrival in Luceti. It takes Geordie a half year of harmless conversation before Jilly forces him to ask Sam on a date. Unfortunately, their relationship is short lived when Sam is transported back in time by a ghost and Geordie is incapable of doing anything to save her. In the two years since, only he and Jilly remember that night, and remember Sam Rey as something more than a woman from the year 1912, though Geordie prefers not to remember the unusual circumstances altogether. ~ Geordie - History + Personality (Luceti) History/ Background Geordie Riddell is born in the early 1950s in the small, rural community of Jackson Pond. He is the youngest of three brothers born to abusive parents – a father with a temper and a mother who presumably is just as bad. Geordie’s childhood is haunting at best: bullied by his parents at home and equally bullied by school kids who see him, Christy, and Paddy as little more than country hicks bussed in to the school every day. None of the boys succeed well academically and all act out, but none as so much as the eldest Riddell boy, Paddy, who is already in juvie by the time Geordie leaves home. While Paddy gives in to the inherited temper from their father, Christy escapes into fairy tales and writing and Geordie into music. At some point in his childhood, he finds an old Czech fiddle that belonged to his grandfather and takes an interest in learning. Upon realizing Geordie’s preoccupation with the fiddle, his father locks it in a tool chest in the basement to prevent his son from having that outlet. Geordie opts instead to save up money doing chores for neighbors to buy a cheap fiddle that he does eventually learn to play on. However, when reaching fifteen, Geordie is no longer capable of living under his parents’ roof anymore. He breaks into the tool chest, steals his grandfather’s fiddle, and runs away from home to the city of Newford. There, he spends the next couple of years living on the street. At some point during this time, his brother Paddy is sentenced to a term in prison for murder, where he hangs himself only a few weeks in. Neither Geordie nor Christy go to his sentencing. ~ Geordie - History + Personality (Luceti) Events in the Series (spoilery area) "Timeskip"—Dreams Underfoot: In which there is a ghost, and Jilly urges Geordie Riddell to ask Sam out on a date. ~ Buried in Print ✥ One evening, not long after Geordie and Sam start dating, they investigate the Stanton Street Ghost, with Jilly watching from the side lines. Sam gets curious and wants to ask why the Ghost haunts that corner. When she reaches out to touch him, they both vanish. All record of Sam disappears with her, with the exception of a single photograph that he and Jilly find a few weeks later in Moore’s Antiques in Lower Crowsea. Only Geordie and Jilly know she ever existed in modern day Newford. ~The Wordwood | Stanton Street Ghost ✥ "Paperjack" — Dreams Underfoot (1993) #1: Sam left Geordie a letter with the book he'd given her with her granddaughter and namesake should he come asking for her. (from the story) See Also * Newford art scene * Newford night scene * Samantha Rey * Dreams Underfoot — Timeskip", "Paperjack" * Newford Series External Links * Geordie - History + Personality (Luceti) * Geordie Ridell (full bio) - Newford series - uceti — Scroll down *Geordie Riddell | People/Characters | LibraryThing *Charles de Lint - Dreams Underfoot - text Category:Characters Category:Humans Category:Browse Category:Newford Art Scene Category:Newford Night Scene